strategies for developing listening skills

STRATEGIES FOR

DEVELOPING LISTENING

SKILLS

GLADYS T. AMBUYAT

BSED III- ENGLISH

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people

never listen.” ― Ernest Hemingway*

“We have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may hear more

and speak less.” ― Diogenes Laertius^

*an American author and journalist^a biographer of the Greek philosophers

Let’s find out!

Have you had any problems dealing with

listening exercises?How much do you

know about listening?

Do you agree with this? Language learning depends on

listening.

When you listen to a conversation in English, you try to understand every word.

Listening to songs and radio programs in English are two of the best ways to learn the language.

When you disagree with a speaker's message, you usually stop paying attention.

When you agree with a speaker's message you usually nod.

Your role as a listener is to show interest.

As you listen to someone speak you take notes to help yourself understand the message.

How much do learners retain from the listening input?

Why is listening an important

skill to develop in

your language learners?

Because language learners need it:

To obtain information

To understand

For enjoyment

To learn

To communicate

Listening is the language modality^ that is used most frequently but…

…why is listening in English so hard?

^is the way or mode in which something exists or is done; shares its root with the word mode, meaning "the way in which something happens or is experienced."

Because…

Students have to process the messages as they come, cope with the speaker’s choice of vocabulary, structure, and rate of delivery.

The complexity of the listening process is magnified in second language context where the listener also has an incomplete control of the language.

It is essential for language teachers to help our students become effective active listeners.

How can we do so?By modeling listening strategies

By providing active listening practice

Next slide>>TEACHING STRATEGIES

What are listening strategies?

are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input.

can be classified by how the listener processes the input.

These are:Top down, Bottom up and Metacognitive

*STRATEGY -Is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty. --an elaborate and systematic plan of action

Top - Down Listening Strategies

refers to the use of background knowledge in understanding the meaning of the message.

Background knowledgeConsists of context, the situation and topic, and co-text(what came before and after).

>>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE TOP DOWN LISTENING STRATEGY


are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next.

Top-down strategies include:•listening for the main idea•Predicting•drawing inferences•summarizing



Top down strategy focuses on content. Students can predict the content of listening activity beforehand and use various materials such as pictures and key words to understand the meaning. This strategy is more broad approach than bottom-up and related with daily lives. When we watch drama or movie, we usually focus on whole meaning, not structure or forms. Likewise, we listen to news programs to grasp overall content and music by understanding the whole meaning. Some people do these activities by using bottom-up strategy, but this is rare case. The materials that can be used in top-down are prevalent. Teachers can use authentic information. When students listen to real-life story, it can increase their interest and make them think about main idea more seriously.


Top-Down Listening Activities

• putting a series of pictures or sequence of events in order.

• Listening to conversation and identify where they take place

• Reading information about a topic then listening to find whether or not the same points are mentioned.

• Inferring the relationship between the people involved.

Bottom – up Listening Strategies

They are text based. The listener relies on the language in the message (sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning)

Bottom-up strategies include:

•listening for specific details•Recognizing cognates•Recognizing word-order patterns

>>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE BOTTOM UP LISTENING STRATEGY

Bottom – up Listening Strategies

Bottom up strategy is to know about details and segments. It concentrates on forms and structure. Thus, this activity is more related with academic study. English learning students use this activity to enhance their listening ability. Dictation and listening tests are included in this. In class, ‘fill in the blank/s’ activity can increase students’ awareness of forms. However, bottom-up strategy doesn’t mean that it excludes all authentic things. When we need deep concentration on details, we use this activity. For example, weather forecast, phone number and advertisement having implied meaning need special focus on details to understand. Besides, tongue twists can be a good exercise for students to notice subtle difference in various English forms and pronunciation.

>>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE BOTTOM UP LISTENING STRATEGY

Tongue Twister

How much dew does a dewdrop dropIf dewdrops do drop dew?

They do drop, they doAs do dewdrops drop

If dewdrops do drop dew.

Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager

imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?

Successful listening depends on the ability to combine top-down

and bottom-up processing.

Activities which work separately should help students to combine

top-down and bottom-up processes to become more

effective listeners in real-life or longer classroom listening.

Meta cognitive Listening Strategies

In general, metacognition is thinking about thinking. More specifically, Taylor (1999) defines metacognition as “an appreciation of what one already knows, together with a correct apprehension of the learning task and what knowledge and skills it requires, combined with the agility to make correct inferences about how to apply one’s strategic knowledge to a particular situation, and to do so efficiently and reliably.”

>>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE META COGNITIVE LISTENING STRATEGY

Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing."[1] It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving. There are generally two components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition.


Used to plan, monitor, and evaluate their listening.•They plan deciding which listening strategies will serve best in particular situation•They monitor their comprehension and the effectiveness of the selected strategies•They evaluate by determining whether they have achieved their listening comprehension goals and whether the combination of listening strategies selected was an effective one




Actions that the learner deliberately takes to enhance comprehension and oversee and regulate the listening process. They include actions such as: planning, monitoring, evaluation and problem solving.



Meta cognitive Listening StrategiesMy Predictions

Vocabulary diets rules at home overweight strict meals table The topic: What may parents do to prevent their children from gaining weight?


Monitoring comprehension I have understood the stricter parents are at table, the more likely are to become overweight.

I need to listen harder something about highly demanding that I couldn’t understand in the first listening.

Tips for Helping our Students Become Active Listeners

Activate your students’ prior knowledge before any listening activity in order to predict or anticipate content.

Assess your students' background knowledge on the topic and linguistic content of the text.

Tips for Helping our Students Become Active Listeners

If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow them to read through it before listening.

Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of the whole.

Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen

Remind students to review what they are hearing to see if it makes sense in the context of their prior knowledge and what they already know of the topic or events of the passage.

Use visual aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images on the video to help contextualize the input and provide clues to meaning.

>>NEXT SLIDE-SUMMARY

To sum it up….

The three strategies for developing Listening Skills are:

Top down -refers to the use of background knowledge in understanding the meaning of the message.putting a series of pictures or sequence of events in order. Listening to conversation and identify where they take place Reading information about a topic then listening to find whether or not the same points are mentioned. Inferring the relationship between the people involved.

To sum it up….

The three strategies for developing Listening Skills are:

Bottom up - know about details and segments. It concentrates on forms and structure. Thus, this strategy is more related with academic study. English learning students use this activity to enhance their listening ability. •Dictation and listening tests are included in this. •In class, ‘fill in the blank/s’ activity can increase students’ awareness of forms.•tongue twists can be a good exercise for students to notice subtle difference in various English forms and pronunciation.

THANK YOU

strategies for developing listening skills

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